Duration 3 days

Objectives
On this course, you will learn key techniques that enable you to take advantage of Illustrator's powerful tools. Our course starts with the basics - the illustrator environment and how to get around it, and the principles of vector and raster graphics. You will also get to grips with the drawing capabilities within Illustrator, including Paths, Fills, Strokes and Type. We move on to advanced drawing features, converting vector graphics to raster images and using brushes and patterns. You will learn techniques for bending, stretching and twisting text, graphics, and images using live warping and distortion. In the final section you will learn about key concepts such as trapping and flattening, colour management, advanced typography and optimising techniques for Print. To round off, we include a section on web file formats and techniques for creating static and dynamic web graphics.

Requirements
This course is for those who have little or no experience using Adobe Illustrator and who wish to learn the skills necessary to start using this program effectively. Good PC or Mac Skills are required, together with experience of the Web, using either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.


Course Outline

Introduction
• The Illustrator Workspace
• Vector vs Raster Graphics
• The Illustrator Toolbox
• The Illustrator Palettes

Document Set up
• Setting up your Document
• Using the Navigator
• Choosing the Colour Mode
• Setting the Size of the Artboard

Basic Drawing
• Creating and Editing Paths
• Fill and Stroke
• Applying Colour
• Creating and Editing Colour
• Gradients
• Brushes and Patterns

Using Layers
• Layers - making life easy
• Creating layers
• Sub-Layers
• Showing and Hiding Layers
• Ordering Layers
• Changing the layer display

Using Objects
• About objects
• Rulers, Guides and Grids
• Creating and editing objects
• Grouping and ungrouping
• Locking and Hiding Objects
• Rotating Objects
• Transforming Objects

Working with Paths
• About Paths in Illustrator
• Endpoints, Anchorpoints
• Curved paths
• Direction lines and Points
• Manipulating paths

Using Type
• Overview: type in illustrator
• Creation and Selection
• Setting Type Specifications
• Copying formatting between selections
• Rasterising and Anti-aliasing
• Transforming type
• Formatting: Paragraphs and Columns

Working with Colour
• Overview: modes and models
• Spot and Process colour types
• The Colour Pallete
• The Swatches Pallete and Libraries
• The Stroke and Fill Palletes
• Modifying Colours
• Transparency

Using Gradients and Meshes
• Creating Blends
• The Gradient Mesh

Live Effects
• What are live Effects?
• Applying Effects
• Removing Effects
• Envelope Distortion
• Appearance Attributes
• Using Styles with Effects
• Hatch Effects Filter

Using Compound Shapes
• What are Compound Shapes?
• Including Elements
• Selecting parts of a compound shape
• Exporting to Photoshop

Masking Techniques
• Layer Masks
• Using Type for Masking Effects

Importing and Exporting Files
• Vector Grahics
• Raster Graphics
• Tracing images

Preparing for Prepress
• Overview of Print Separations
• A pre-press checklist
• Trapping lines and text
• Pathfinder Trapping
• Overprinting
• Adding crop marks
• Separation options
• Printing and saving Separations

Preparing for the Web
• Overview of Web Graphics
• Using Symbols
• Slicing Graphics
• Creating image maps
• SVG file format and plug-in
• SWF file format
• GIF optimisation
• Saving images

Data-Driven Graphics
• Why we need data-driven graphics
• Working with Variables
• Dynamic Objects
• XML IDs
• Using Data sets
• Loading and Saving Variable Libraries
• Creating and Saving Dynamic Templates